Caliber
Scientific Calculator by CVS Pharmacy vs. Hewlett Packard HP 10s+
Last Friday, I just couldn't resist. I was at CVS in Glendora, CA and purchased
their Caliber Scientific Calculator, pretty much for its keyboard.
 |
| CVS Caliber Scientific Calculator |
 |
| HP 10s+ Scientific Calculator |
Shift
and Alpha Markings
 |
| Shift and Alpha markings (Caliber on the left, HP 10s+ on the right) |
On the Caliber (on the left), unlike almost every single
scientific calculator, the markings on the calculator, outside of the number
keys, are all one color: white. The
primary functions are in white, the shift functions, white, and alpha
characters, white. The HP 10s+ (on the
right) have different colors. Shift
functions are in sky blue and Alpha characters are in orange.
 |
| Trigonometry Key Placement (Caliber on the left, HP 10s+ on the right) |
Trigonometry Keys (pictured above):
Caliber places the [ SIN ] and [ COS ] on one row while
the [ TAN ] key is on the next row. Also
noticed, the marking of the arccosine function:
Con⁻¹ instead of cos⁻¹. Like every other calculator, the
HP 10s+ places the three trigonometric keys in a row.
Alpha
Characters:
Scientific
calculators usually line up their alpha characters in linear and logical
fashion. Caliber defies this:
The B character
(alpha of [ ° ‘ “ ]) is placed one row above (!) the A character (alpha of
[(-)]). C, D, E, are on the next row (alpha
of [HYP], [SIN], and [COS], respectively), and the F character (alpha of [TAN])
is on the next row.
Apparently, CVS
took the keys of the HP 10s+, or most likely the Casio fx-300MSPlus, and
rearranged the keys with not much regard to the placement or logic of the
keys.
Operating
System
Both the Caliber and HP 10s+ are clones of the Casio
fx-300MSPLUS. The three calculators have
the following features:
* Fraction entry and simplification
* Nine memory registers (A through F, X, Y, M). Storage addition and subtraction available for
the variable M.
* Random Numbers
* Six statistic regression models: linear, logarithmic, exponential, power,
inverse, and quadratic.
General information for the fx-300MSPLUS:
Manual:
(links retrieved 3/21/2015)
Verdict
on the Caliber Calculator
Despite the unusual placement on the keys and the fact
all the markings are one color, the Caliber operates well and expected.
Eddie
This blog is property of Edward Shore. 2015
